Tonhon Chonlatee (2020)

A Secret Pleasure of Mine

This is such a feel-good series particularly currently. Honestly, I should not have liked this, but I did. It is slow, predictable, filled with the usual suspects but so much fun. I could not help laughing at its silliness and cuteness at the same time. If it were not for these actors, this would have been a total disaster. They made this series so real, so comedic, and just a joy to watch. I did not care that it had no depth to it or great message. It was just entertaining. It is a thing of beauty to watch. The ending is as unrealistic as this entire plot but so in synch with the rest of this series. This was a comedy and indeed has a happy ending (well you know what I mean). Everyone wins in the end. Do not read too much into this series. This is not a slice of life; it is essentially asking you to suspend your reality and simply enjoy a feel-good series about love between guys. There are a lot of flaws in this series from ridiculous characters, such as Amp, to crazy plot lines, like a surrogate pregnancy. But for me, it worked. Why? Because I believed the characters.
However, there were some situations in this series that made me shudder. One is the overuse of ‘hubby-wifey’ connotations. Again, I am NOT Thai, and I do NOT even pretend to know the Thai culture or customs, but for me these terms are simply cringeworthy. I am hoping we can stop using these terms to define gay relationships. I know that they might help make them more relatable to societal norms, but these terms are simply outdated and literally have no and should not have meaning in the gay world. They make it sound as if these are your assigned roles and duties, thus perpetuating the stereotypical roles of each gender.
The words that Chon's mother is so apt here and we should all remember them, “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” If you would like to review my full review of this series, it is posted on my free blog site at ppbongi.medium.com. I have to caution you that I actually liked this series, despite its flaws.

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A lighthearted comedy with unfortunate wasted potential

NO-SPOILER REVIEW

This series seems to have taken many shortcuts that unfortunately made for a less-than-satisfying execution on a story and cast that had lots of promise. It's still worth watching if you're a fan of the cast and as long as you keep your expectations low and enjoy it for the lighthearted comedy that it is.

Pros
- Plenty of entertaining comedic moments.
- Quite possibly one of the best mom characters in the genre.

Cons
- The series felt rushed, especially during the latter half. Some aspects were glazed over far too quickly which led to it feeling unsatisfying. Some of this may have been due to Covid-related issues.
- Lots of wasted potential in terms of the overall story and development of certain characters.
- Overly simplified dialogue and some tired tropes.

Overall
- If you keep your expectations low and understand this to be more of a casual and comedic series, this can still be an enjoyable series to watch.

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Coming Out ... Friendship...Love

I am not sure why this drama received low ratings, but I am glad I stuck to it. It is your normal drama whereby straight boy isn't sure of his feelings, towards boy next door, but as you carry on into the drama, it unfolds and you get to understand what happened.

The ML were not so bad, you could feel the chemistry and love between them, I liked how chon love didn't waiver when things got challenging for them, and the friends helped them along the way to realize they feelings for each other. Mairiam was really sweet and loving and funny throughout this drama.

The side characters were not so bad, I definitely feel that Amp should have gotten a bit more then what she deserved, and her friend who got away with almost raping the kid in the bathroom, and beating up the kid, these two characters should have a bit more punishments then just allowing to get away with the things they did.

The story itself the annoying ex- girlfriend, the father who didn't approve and many more. But that didn't annoy me as much as the damn pacing of this series! It started off with SOOOO much potential, stalled and then just went downhill with so much of stuff being stuffed in the last three episodes that if you blink, you may miss something from the story.

The epilogue 3 years later is so strange as well, was such a jump, and the pregnancy's and then their kiss at the end,

Overall: its was bad/but watchable

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Watch First Then Read the Reviews!! Great Acting, Lackluster Script

Tonhon Chonlatee has a great cast, but suffers from a terrible script. It's like whoever wrote the script had way too many ideas and threw them all together without thinking it through.

If you watch the series, I think you will enjoy it. You'll laugh and find a lot of it comedic. It's actually not that terrible to watch. The actors are good at acting, so they make up for the terrible plot. That being said if you just read the reviews without watching the series you'll misunderstand the series. It's not the greatest if you compare it to other BLs, but it's honestly not the worst series out there. I would watch this if you are bored or are waiting for your next BL series. I wouldn't expect it to be the next SOTUS or Love By Chance, but it's still a decent watch. It's really the actors that make the series a fun watch. Ignore the storyline and just enjoy their acting.

STORY:

Chonlatee has been crushing on his neighbor Tonhon since he was a kid. His mother and friends know of his gay crush and don't judge him on his sexuality. When he reunites with Tonhon he finds that Tonhon is homophobic and it stems from his father's parenting. Tonhon and Chonlatee end up rekindling their friendship, but after some questionable incidents at their university involving "misunderstandings" that Chonlatee is gay, Tonhon sets out to prove that Chonlatee is straight. While trying to prove Chonlatee's straightness, Tonhon is starting to get a little to overprotective of Chonlatee.

So.... I don't know where to begin. If you write down the main point of the plot you get what seems to be a decent storyline. However, when you start actually breaking down the story it starts to crumble. It's really like the writer tried to cram so much into this plot. There is so many things going on a once. It might just be easier to list out how many strange things going on.

1. Tonhon is supposed to be the mature, hotshot of the campus, but he acts like a kid under his parents thumb as the episodes past. What happened to the mature Tonhon from ep 1. By ep 10 he's so gullible, naive, and easily manipulated. It's quite annoying as he's a grown adult, not some kid in elementary school.

2. Ai and Ni go from gays who were clearly able to hide their gayness from Tonhon for 3 years, to being so obvious in their relationship that it's a wonder how Tonhon thought they were straight.

3. Ai and Ni's bromance? It's obvious they are a couple and that they are dating. The character themselves say so. That being said, it's a BL series. It's not a Chinese bromance. Why are all of their kisses sensored and cut out. The character were reacting to the kisses, but we never get to see even one kiss when Ai and Ni are obviously kissing in the scenes. Why? It's annoying not because we want to see the kiss, but because it's so out of place not to see the kiss when everyone is reacting to it. If no kissing is in the actor's contracts then shoot one actor from behind and make it look like they are kissing. It's not that hard to create the illusion of a kiss.

4. Mirium's entire existence in the series. While her character adds to the comedy and I enjoyed her in the show, her background and her being a gold-digger made everything kind of weird when you think about her friendship with the group.

5. We really didn't need the side plot of Tonhon's sister and her husband. That was a waste of time to watch and it wasn't even properly explained, so they created a plot hole. We also barely got any screentime with them, so no one cared if she was neglected or if he was gay or not. The ending with the cat and cosplay also threw me off. What did I just watch?

6. Tonhon's dad's homophobia isn't homophobia... If you watch the show you'll know what I mean.

7. Tonhon and Chonlatee actually getting together. First of all, they fight with each other more than they are together that it's a wonder why Tonhon fell for Chonlatee. Secondly, Tonhon's sudden confession about being in love with Chonlatee since they were kids was out of nowhere. If he loved Chonlatee from the start, he definitely didn't show it. Who takes their crush to a party and tries to set their crush up with a call-girl?

8. The ending!!!!!!!!! There is so much wrong with it. A, everything is so rushed that we don't even get to see Chonlatee and Tonhon actually make up and get together to solidify they are a couple. B, Tonhon's family, particularly his dad is strange. C, Mirium being pregnant? Show us the wedding first. I saw the wedding bands on their fingers, but it wasn't blatantly clear. I only saw it when Chonlatee was laughing. There was no ring only shot. D, the way they wrapped it up was cheap and rushed. All just sitting on the couch talking about what happened in the 3 years that passed. No thank you.


Tonhon & Chonlatee

I enjoyed watching them together. I won't lie though, it was frustrating watching Tonhon trying to prove Chonlatee is straight. Tonhon clearly had feelings for Chonlatee since the beginning, but was in denial since he was homophobic. Seeing Tonhon be so homophobic was really annoying. I don't know how Chonlatee, Ai and Ni could stand being around him.

Chonlatee was quite honest and loyal with his love for Tonhon, and was open about being gay to his family, but instead of the gay vibes, he gave me more of a "I'm gay for Tonhon" vibes. When other gays hit on him, he let Tonhon be very homophobic and I felt that was quite rude. Since the LGBTQ+ community is very small, one would assume he would at least stop Tonhon from being rude even if he wasn't outing himself.

The biggest issue I had with this couple was that I felt they didn't have chemistry. The plot was rushed, so when Tonhon said he loved Chonlatee I couldn't see it. Even the ending was rushed that I couldn't see them as a couple that dated for 3 years and was now expecting. I just can't see them as an endgame couple because they had very few scenes together where they were loving and caring to each other.

Ai & Ni (& Miriam)

I enjoyed this couple more than Tonhon and Chonlatee. They were more interesting than Tonhon or Chonlatee. I actually found myself excited for to see them. I know they didn't have a couple storyline and were literally just there to push Tonhon and Chonlatee together, but they were the best thing about this show. Even Miriam was a warm welcome. This was the golden trio and whenever they were on screen, you knew some shenanigans was going to happen.

Na (& Chonlatee)

I really wished Chonlatee ended up with Na. At first I thought Na was annoying, but every time he appeared on screen you could see he really was in love with Chonlatee. He was so selfless in his love for Chonlatee that I was kind of upset Chonlatee chose Tonhon. Na is really the perfect boyfriend and perfect friend. When he helped make Tonhon jealous and even talked to him to get Tonhon to show his feelings for Chonlatee, I was impressed. He pushed his love for Chonlatee to the side for Tonhon and even helped him open his heart. So selfless! Even though I'm disappointed Na couldn't date Chonlatee, I think it was for the best that Na moved on and got a new boyfriend. Na needs some TLC in his life and Chonlatee is obviously not good enough for Na anyways.


ACTING:

Tonhon Chonlatee has a decent cast who are all experienced in the BL Industry. All of the main cast have been in a series or two, so they all give nice performances. Even though they script was terrible, the cast did their best with that they got. It wasn't Oscar worthy, but their acting was literally the best thing about this series.

Ai, Ni, Na, Mirium, Amp, and Neung were great! Tonhon and Chonlatee were good, but they obviously are not ready to be leads yet. They lacked the chemistry, where as Ai and Ni had lots of chemistry and out shined them.

OVERALL:

Tonhon Chonlatee is a BL to watch when you're out of other BLs to watch. It's not great, but it's not the worst. I'd just watch it for the actors, not the storyline.

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Look past the bad.

Before watching, I looked through the reviews on My Drama List, and a lot of them were negative. I feel like this show deserves a little more. Yes, this show had a lot of homophobia and more old fashion ideals, but if you look past it the show was amazing. I spent the majority laughing, specifically at P'Ni, P'Ai, and P'Miriam. The show had a very good plot and there were loveable characters. The homophobia was mostly P'Tonhon's family, more specifically his dad. However, the negatives of the show were not enough to outweigh the positives. I really do recommend this show, it's really good!

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Friends to lovers + forced proximity (cohabitation)

Whether I liked Tohnon Chonlatee or not, I can’t deny that it gave us a number of things we hadn’t seen in Thai BL before:

* Queer found family and support network.
* Out gay side couple who could function as healthy role models, advisors, foils, and comic relief for the main couple.
* Actually decent female representation.
* A truly charming cast of characters that included Na’s sunglasses.

Will it live on in the zeitgeist as a top Thai BLs? Unlikely, but it’s probably the first honest gay rom com out of Thailand with passingly adequate queer rep. So for that it will live in my heart forever.

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Full of laughs and love

I was hesitant to watch this at first because of negative comments but I decided to give it ago as it had the male lead who was in The Eclipse and he is an amazing actor and as usual was phenomenal in this??? The storyline was a typical bl storyline but the production team did a good job and I thoroughly loved every episode❤️ Please everybody give this gem of a series a watch and judge for yourself like I did! A few comments referred to an attempted SA but unfortunately that is a part of University life and occasionally it happens as mixing alcohol and partying not a good mix! Overall was a good watch and I will watch it again so thank you to all production crew and actors and GMMTV!

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No. Just... No

After watching this I can confidently say... I have finally found it. I have found a series that made me want to blow my brains out more than 2gether the series. It took me almost 2 weeks to get through this dumpster fire because I had to keep pausing and contemplating all the life choices that had led me to this very moment in time. It was cringy, repetitive, and just overall so cliche in the worst possible ways

STORY

The story itself was really cute- or it would've been if the writers and producers knew their heads from their asses. Tonhon, from the very beginning, is a self-obsessed jerk who has so much internalized homophobia he can't even realize his closest friends who he has known for years are gay themselves. This wouldn't be such an issue, however, if he didn't treat being gay like it was the plague.

The trope of him being violently, disgustingly, vomit-inducingly homophobic to telling his childhood best friend he was in love with him would have been kind of cute if they hadn't made him SO homophobic to the point he refused to even acknowledge it wasn't a disease. This just added to my confusion when one second he was punching a dude for flirting with chonlatee and the next he was kissing him. It just didn't make sense.

Chonlatee was such a sweet character and he deserved way better. By episode 6 I was rooting for the second lead to end up with him. I knew it wouldn't happen but I just needed some motivation to keep watching. The fact that Chonlatee said being in a relationship with Ton was tiring just solidified my opinion that just because you love someone is not reason enough to stay together. They were borderline toxic and I will die on that hill.

Ai and Ni made me more interested in their story than the main couple did and they only had like 10 mins of screen time in each episode if that. I would've loved it if they had gotten just a bit more time cuz they were so cute together. Also, fuck the directors for not giving us the AiNi kiss scene we deserved. We were robbed.

As episode 10 rolled around the corner I liked exactly 2 characters- Itt and Miriam. I would say pang too but she didn't get enough screen time for me to get to know her character.

STORY

Boring and so cliche. The crazy ex-girlfriend trope can be pretty interesting if implemented in the right context. As you may have guessed whoever decided how they should include the trope in this series did not do a great job of it. Not even a half-decent job at that. They didn't just include the trope- no they instead made the whole storyline around the girl.

Every. Single. Episode. There she was. Oh, the main characters are having a cute moment. How cute! Oh, wait Amp is right around the corner about to throw water on the poor dude. Damn. Oh, how adorable they're going on a date! Oh wait never mind she's there and now all three characters are in a bad mood.

There was not a single cute moment that wasn't ruined by her presence. I can't remember most of what I watched, but you know what I do remember? Amp was there.

ACTING

Overall the acting was pretty good. The actors did the best they could with what they were given. While most people probably don't like the antagonist the actress who played Amp did a wonderful job of making us hate her.

All in all, would I ever watch this again? I would rather willingly jump into a pit of lava. I do however want the intro played at my funeral.

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i have never wanted to kms more (tw: mention of r*pe)

here are some things in each episode that made me laugh in pain, cry in fear, and scream in disbelief:
ep 1- the way it started out with the untamed reference, that grubby kids booger had me passing away
ep 2- that bozo (na) walking backwards, the end part of 4/4, chon dancing made me depressed
ep 3- ton randomly checking chon's muscles, overall very much suffered watching this episode
ep 4- the elephant covering ton's pp and ton's pp reveal in general, ton is a weirdo bc he keeps being sus but then also homophobic and it's cringe af, ton went from brother to "should i make him my wife" i will kill him, the mom dancing and singing
ep 5- the way the music started when ton took chon's wrist inside the house
ep 6- the dude (nueng) ab to r*pe chon deserves no rights bc why would he do smth so disgusting just cuz it happened to him in the past smh, also why is chon giving ton a smooch after he got assaulted what's wrong with him and the way he said "ily" immediately after, not them censoring ai and ni smooch also it was random af im screaming with the s, when ton passed by chon and then chon got sad and left but then ton came back and he looked stupid bc it was sped up
ep 7- the random cut from ai and ni to chon and na spinning sent, the you say "be straight" i say "taste the rainbow flag thing zoom, the judge wig makes miriam look like ten and i hate it
ep 8- the random kiss wtfreak and then the shirt removal and then the untamed reference immediately after, the "i will make you scream louder than last night" made my skin crawl and so did the nose rub after
ep 9- ton sitting outside in broad daylight with some stationary writing chon notes lmaoaooao
ep 10- NOT THE MOM APPROVING OF THE WIFE AND HUBBY TERMINOLOGY IM K WORDING MSYEFL, THE WAY THE KID CHON FELL OFF THE BRIDGE IM CRYING ADN CSCREAMING I CANT ITS TOO FUNNY

overall, this show is caca poo and i hat u gmmtv for ruining the story by adding irrelevant plot lines. also i hate every character except na. ai and ni were ok in the beginning but they got annoying also the censoring was cringe. i wish i could take back all the hours i wasted watching this show. the music was random and cringe, the sound effects even more. i am brocken thanks a lot gmmtv u stinky baffoons
if i were u i would never even watch the trailer for it. if u even THINK about watching it, watch it on the fastest speed there is.

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Offensive to the LGBTQ community & adult children of narcissistic parents

Finally a series with a story that had GREAT potential to discuss many important matters for society (coming out, parenthood, personality disorders, infidelity, surrogacy etc), but instead the producers and writers chose the most heteronormative, safe, poorly executed approach possible, that is actually OFFENSIVE and perpetuates several damaging stereotypes. Let's analyze this one by one (spoilers ahead).

First of all, Chon in the beginning acts like a mentally unhealthy fanboy and stalker and exhibits several disturbing behaviors that are being romanticized as ''star crossed lovers''. Stalking a guy who has been no contact with you for 5 years all the time in social media? Going to his family's empty house to clean it like it's some kind of museum and fantasize? Choosing a university not based on what will give you the best education or what you want to study but because Ton goes there? Are you serious? This behavior is ''cute'' and ''funny''? This is codependency, love addiction and maladaptive daydreaming (feel free to google those terms if you don't know what they mean). Chon doesn't need to date Ton, he needs mental help from a psychiatrist.

Ton's character is an immature loser and has multiple personalities during the series. At first he is very homophobic and I thought that they will use that to discuss how some people who grow up in homophobic families end up suppressing being gay. Nope, after that Ton has said several times that ''he loved only Chon'' meaning he is not gay and just ''happened to be in love with this specific man''. The ''I am straight but became gay for you'' trope is an extremely damaging concept and should not be perpetuated. As if this wasn't enough, he ends up triangulating Chon with his toxic ex gf (episode where she challenges him with her manipulation and he ends up kissing her in the classmate reunion breaking Chon's heart). It is clear that he still hasn't gotten over the infidelity/break up or isn't ready to deal with the challenges that comes from being out as dating another man and he shouldn't be dating anyone until he works on those issues first. He does apologize, but then toxic behaviors continue and nothing gets resolved. He should have gone to the police for his stalker ex gf instead of tolerating her harassment.

Ton's narcissistic father in the show was actually a very well portrayed character and the actor did a good job portraying a self-obsessed old narcissist using everything he has to control his family. His heart condition is weaponized (don't go against me or I will have an episode and end up in hospital), his monetary support is weaponized (stop dating Chon or I will stop paying your rent and kick the gay people out of the rental house) and he feels entitled to dictate the life of his grown up children, not based on their own best interest, but on what serves HIM (I want a grand child and you will stop being gay).

Here is the true disaster that made a series that could have been a 10/10 into a 1/10 in my opinion:

After the narcissist father found out and all hell broke loose, the healthy solution would be to have a civilized (as possible) conversation with him and Ton to assert healthy boundaries as GROWN ADULT MAN. To say to his father ''I love and respect you and I am grateful for what you did for me, but this is who I am and the choice of the partner I have made, if you don't agree with that, I will respect it and we will move out of the rental house and get jobs to not burden you. If in the future we feel ready to be parents, we will examine carefully all the available options. We will give you the time and space to think things through, but we will not put up with abuse/harassment and insults. You will not insult or harass Chon, my friends or anyone else''. Then his father would have to be toxic (because that's how narcissists are, they don't accept your boundaries) and there would have to be a period of no contact.

The surrogacy idea was atrociously executed. Children are not instruments to please a parent with outdated ideas so that you can bypass parental homophobia. It would have been much more proper if they showed Ton and Chon years later, financially independent and choosing a surrogate because THEY want to become parents, not because Ton's out of control narcissistic father acts like an overgrown toddler (I WANT A GRANDCHILD NOW, NOW, NOW GIVE IT TO ME OR ELSE I WILL ABUSE YOU!).

Personally I would have preferred it if they ADOPTED a child or chose to be childfree all together instead of making a random greedy gold digger girl the surrogate because they needed a bio-child, but I respect that some people want bio-kids and surrogacy done ethically is one of the choices. Still, choosing surrogacy should have been something the couple wants, not something done in a ''here is your grand child, we can go have our forbidden gay romance in peace now''.

Overall the show relied on cheap sentimentality and enabled/perpetuated several damaging ideas in society.

Biggest waste of potential. Would not rewatch.

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